ATK Audiotek specializes in
providing audio systems for live television shows and major events like The Voice, Jimmy Kimmy Live!, the Super
Bowl, the Grammy Awards and more. They also have a thriving integration
business, and install audio systems for some of the world’s leading tech and
retail companies. In order to raise the bar from previous successful Super Bowl
and Grammy Awards shows, ATK plans to deliver premium audio quality at these
upcoming major events with industry-leading JBL VTX Series A12 and A8 line
array speakers.

“The VTX A12 is the best speaker
JBL has ever made, and it plays a significant role in our current inventory,” said
Michael MacDonald, President, ATK Audiotek. “Two of the most important aspects
of a speaker’s performance are coverage and a flat response. The A12 is
consistently excellent both of these areas. We’ve added 192 A12 speakers to our
inventory since the 2018 Grammy Awards, and they’ve been warmly welcomed by our
engineers and technical staff.”

ATK is currently installing
and fine-tuning every aspect of the sound systems to be used at Mercedes-Benz
Stadium for the Super Bowl, one of the most ubiquitous entertainment events in
the world. The VTX A12’s ease of deployment plays a huge role in enabling the
ATK team to quickly deploy the speakers on and off the field for the highly
anticipated Halftime Show featuring Maroon 5, Big Boi and Travis Scott.

“The Super Bowl is an
interesting production—everything people hear from the time they enter the
venue is under our control, including the Halftime Show,” said MacDonald. “We
have A12s loaded on carts to roll out on the field for the Halftime Show, and
NFL groundskeepers are very happy that the carts won’t damage the field’s
playing condition thanks to the speaker’s lightweight and compact design. Also,
we don’t want to block fans’ field of vision. We achieve less obtrusive sight
lines with the A12s so that the speaker stacks don’t interfere with views from
the lower bowl seats.”

In addition to the Super Bowl
Halftime Show, ATK Audiotek will also rely exclusively on VTX A12 speakers to
provide premium full-range sound reinforcement for the Grammy Awards on
February 10 at the Staples Center.

“When we’re doing a show like
the Grammys in an arena, we need a very powerful and precise sledgehammer to do
the job,” said MacDonald. “We need a lot of volume to compete with room noise,
and we have a huge audience we need to cover. The A12 is excellent in that
regard for its predictable pattern control, which helps us provide excellent
coverage without feedback.”

ATK recently supplied a VTX
A8-based sound reinforcement system for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which
took place on January 29 at the intimate Shrine Auditorium. The A8’s
ultra-compact design and exceptionally flat response helped the ATK team deliver
superior clarity and coverage, providing maximum gain-before-feedback in the
acoustically-challenging ballroom.

“A show like the Screen Actors Guild Awards requires a lot of finesse,
because it’s in a smaller room and the PA is much closer to the audience,” said
MacDonald. “The VTX A8 speakers are both high-powered and compact, with
significantly more balanced output and better pattern control than other
speakers we’ve used in the past. Another benefit of using the A8s is we save
the show producers a bunch of valuable theater space by using less subwoofers.”

ABOUT HARMAN

HARMAN (harman.com) designs and
engineers connected products and solutions for
automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems,
audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions;
and services supporting the Internet of Things. With
leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®,
Lexicon®, Mark
Levinson® and
Revel®,
HARMAN is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where
they perform around the world. More than 50 million automobiles on the road
today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems. Our
software services power billions of mobile devices and systems that are
connected, integrated and secure across all platforms, from work and home to
car and mobile. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 30,000 people across
the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In March 2017, HARMAN became a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.